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Bookmark this page50 greatest music films ever
Top 50 index | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5-1
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| 'Gimme Shelter' |
3 Gimme Shelter
(David Maysles/Albert Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)
Brothers
David and Albert Maysles couldn’t possibly have predicted the events
that would unfold as their cameras rolled on a chilly December day in
1969 during a free Rolling Stones gig at the Altamont Speedway, nor the
sociological significance the finished film would assume. The American
filmmakers were unaware of what they’d recorded until – with
co-director-editor Charlotte Zwerin – they watched their footage in the
cutting room.
The fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Meredith Hunter
by a Hells Angel stunned and horrified not only the filmmakers but the
‘stars’ of their film. It’s the reactions of the Stones that provide
the movie’s extraordinary emotional punch. In 1964, the Maysles made
‘What’s Happening! The Beatles in America’, depicting the arrival of
the Fab Four in the USA. Shot just five years later, ‘Gimme Shelter’
could hardly express a more radically different sensibility (fearful as
opposed to euphoric; premonitory rather than celebratory).
Everyone
now knows how – thanks to the Hells Angels, hired as security by the
Stones – Altamont went so very wrong, but seeing what was supposed to
be California’s laidback answer to Woodstock degenerate into chaos and
deadly violence before your eyes is something else again. ‘Gimme
Shelter’ opens high-spiritedly enough, with scenes of the Stones
goofing around in capes and top hats, with a donkey – the photoshoot
for what would become the cover of ‘Get Yer Ya-Yas Out’ – before
cutting to the band playing at Madison Square Garden. The camera then
pulls back to reveal that what we’re seeing is actually what the Stones
are watching, on a monitor in a hotel.
Their reaction shots are
the first of many in the movie and become more intense as it
progresses. As we move toward Altamont via NYC, LA and Muscle Shoals,
Alabama, the sense of impending danger builds like a storm cloud in the
distance. Realisation after the brutal fact floods every frame of
‘Gimme Shelter’. With hindsight, candid scenes – Hells Angels chatting
in the winter sun, one reveller, clearly out of his gourd, clawing
wildly at his face – appear like portents of disaster.
The
film’s ostensible focus, the Stones’ gig, becomes almost peripheral;
the narrative drive is toward that one chaotic scene in which Hunter
pulls a gun and is stabbed, while the Stones play ‘Under My Thumb’. We
can’t see this clearly until the film is later replayed, in slow motion
at Mick Jagger’s request, but the inexorable build to this disaster is
all the more harrowing because of the camera’s seemingly random and
impartial gaze.
Not that legendary US film critic Pauline Kael
was impressed; she denounced ‘Gimme Shelter’ as fraudulent. She never
explained why (something that still rankles with the surviving Maysles
brother, Albert), but presumably it’s because the pair’s idea of
documentary filmmaking went beyond just letting the cameras roll.
‘Gimme
Shelter’ is actually as much about process as anything else – the
process of making a record, of staging a free concert, the process of
filmmaking itself – and the action constantly shifts between back-room
negotiations and the ‘front line’ at Altamont, between ‘real time’ and
the recent past. The movie’s denouement comes where the latter overlap,
when we watch Jagger watching the slo-mo footage of the stabbing. It’s
this forward/backward, conceal/reveal dynamic that makes ‘Gimme
Shelter’ the most gripping of concert movies – and so very much more
besides. Sharon O’Connell
Greatest hit The money shot: the point at which we watch, with Jagger, the fatal stabbing in ghastly slow motion.
Top 50 index | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5-1
Author: Dave Calhoun. Written by Derek Adams, Geoff Andrew, Dave Calhoun, Wally Hammond, Michael Hodges, Martin Horsfield, Martin Hoyle, David Jenkins, Trevor Johnston, Eddy Lawrence, Sharon O'Connell, Chris Parkin, Graeme Thomson, Peter Watts
User comments on this story
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- Vince said...
- this list is horse shit, wot's the deal, because the brits hate the irish you can't out "the commitments" or "once" up in the top 50? and did you forget about a movie one of your own made called "the wall"? and the number one film listed is a bloody movie about the world's worst singer karen carpenter? wot the hell???? Posted on Oct 06 2007 05:04
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- Massimo said...
- The worst movie ever, with the best soundtrack ever: Streets of Fire! Posted on Oct 05 2007 20:53
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- vagabondjohn said...
- What? No "Sunshine Daydream" or "Renaldo and Clara"? But at least "Be Here To Love Me" broke the top ten... Posted on Oct 05 2007 20:43
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- Marc said...
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...and that Carpenters film told with dolls is better than "The Kids Are Alright"?
Man, April Fools Day comes earlier every year. Posted on Oct 05 2007 17:39 - Report as inappropriate
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- kanchi said...
- RISE ABOVE - THE TRIBE 8 STORY directed by TRACY FLANNIGAN this is such a cool film about the lesbian punk band from california who are on the dead kennedys label - alternative tenticles. even if u don't like their music it is a well-made, interesting and inspiring film. i was sad (but not suprised) to see this (and other riot grrl/ women in music etc) films missing from the list. is it still uncool to be a feminist? Posted on Oct 05 2007 16:19
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- Matthew W said...
- Some amazing films here but c'mon, you're just trying to get a rise out of us with Superstar at No 1. What about Rockers, Stardust & That'll be the Day, Quadropeinia, Woodstock, (Slade in) Flame? Posted on Oct 05 2007 14:15
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- jules henry said...
- What about Babylon (1980)? Posted on Oct 05 2007 13:37
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- steven menkin said...
- What? Where is The Great Rock & Roll Swindle Posted on Oct 05 2007 13:30
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- Matt said...
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anyone any ideas on how I could find a copy of "So You wanna be a rock 'n' roll star?", or will I have to wait until it comes back on BBC four?
any help would be much appreciated.
cheers. Posted on Oct 05 2007 12:35 - Report as inappropriate
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- monkeystar said...
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I dont want to be funny but how could you leave out The Blues Brothers??? Really, with Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, James Brown and all the other superstars, this is one of the best films about a band and top music ever..
MS Posted on Oct 05 2007 12:30 - Report as inappropriate
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- Matt said...
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anyone any ideas on how I could find a copy of this film, or will I have to wait until it comes back on BBC four?
any help would be much appreciated.
cheers. Posted on Oct 04 2007 13:50 - Report as inappropriate
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